Air Cooler vs AIO Cooler: Which should you buy?

Equipping your CPU with an appropriate cooler is essential for performance and reliability, as an inadequate cooler can hold back your CPU from reaching its full potential. There are a ton of options for coolers to pair with your CPU, but there are basically two options here: do you go for an air cooler or AIO (All-in-One) liquid cooler? Let's expound on the differences to help you choose.

Considering the wide variety of CPU coolers out there, the cooling performance varies significantly between the different models.

For air coolers, a quick judgement call may be made by the physical size of the heat sink and fans utilized. For AIO liquid coolers, the performance is dependent on the radiator size and fans. Based on our testing of our A115 Air Cooler against our H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT AIO, which both use AF ELITE fans, the A115 is able to stay within a few degrees.

Considering the price difference, this highlights where air coolers shine – high performance cooling at a notably lower cost of a comparable AIO cooler, not to mention the inherent reliability advantages that come with fewer moving parts. For gamers, an air cooler is frequently more than sufficient. For those who push their CPUs to the limits with overclocking or more intensive productivity applications, an AIO cooler is the better option. Our upcoming TITAN line of AIO Coolers will be a particularly good option here, as they feature an entirely re-engineered pump and cold plate design, so they'll perform better than any of our older AIOs by a significant margin.

In terms of noise levels, an air cooler would typically be the quieter option. Our A115 air cooler especially showcases this, thanks to the design of the cooling stack with serrated edges to break apart turbulent air, reducing overall noise. Despite an air cooler's supremacy in noise levels, the noise from AIO coolers is not significantly higher and more than acceptable for a majority of users.

When choosing components for your PC build, you may have a targeted look for your finished build. A majority of photogenic PC builds will often sport an AIO cooler. Why? Well, rather than a large heatsink of an air cooler, you'll typically see an drastically smaller pump cap that widely varies in designs to tailor to each builder's taste.

Additionally, if you've gone for some fancy-looking RAM like the DOMINATOR PLATINUM range, an air cooler will make the modules less visible. The same goes for some of the more expensive motherboards of today, that feature their own lighting and super cool looking VRM heatsinks. All this design effort is for naught if shrouded by other components.

Then there's the customizable RGB lighting, typically ubiquitous on AIOs, which may be tuned to a builder's favorite color, or respond in real time to system changes or even what's on screen, and if you want to go even further with customization, our LCD AIOs provide the flexibility of easily putting up custom images or GIFs.

If you've got an iCUE LINK AIO (or if you planning on grabbing one of the upcoming TITAN AIOs,) our collection of CapSwap pump caps also provide a wider range of aesthetic options. The VRM Fan module can even improve the thermals of any component around the CPU socket.

For CPU cooler compatibility, whether an air cooler or an AIO cooler – compatibility must be taken into account. If you have a case already in mind for your PC build, then you'll need to check your case for the following specifications: maximum CPU cooler height (air coolers) and radiator compatibility (AIO coolers). For example - our iCUE LINK H150i RGB AIO Cooler comes with a 360mm radiator, so you'll want to check your case supports a 360mm radiator.

For air coolers, you will also have to account for RAM module height compatibility. For example, our A115 sports a ratcheting fan mount system that allows that fans to slide and lock into various positions to account for both low-profile (e.g. VENGEANCE DDR5 at 35mm) and taller RAM modules (e.g. DOMINATOR TITANIUM at 56.75mm). If we went with the combination of an A115 and DOMINATOR TITANIUM modules, the A115's front fan would now protrude further than it would with a low-profile memory module, and thus must be accounted for when verifying case compatibility.

With the proper tools and guidance, the installation of both air coolers and AIO coolers is a breeze. There isn't a considerable installation difficulty gap between the two – though if you are dealing a smaller case or low-profile air cooler, the difficulty may be higher.

For both coolers, the only maintenance required would be re-applying thermal paste (every two years is ideal) and dusting the heat sink/radiator and fans. Our AIO coolers are closed-loop and do not require any liquid maintenance, compared to open/custom loop liquid cooling solutions.

When choosing between an air cooler or AIO cooler, it's best to identify your personal priorities. If you're looking for the most whisper-quiet build, an air cooler may be the way to go. If you're an avid performance enthusiast or prefer the sleeker, customizable aesthetics, then an AIO cooler would suit you better. Luckily for you, CORSAIR makes both, so check out our collection of AIOs and our new A115 air cooler at our main website.